So What Happened?™

To answer some of the questions/suggestions.
It has a distinct ring(not the tv or radio). We just moved here 2 months ago. Only 5 year old house. Does not plug in. May be hardwired, haven't looked. Hasn't happened before and I'm home A LOT.

Hubby thinks it is on the same frequency as someone elses. But hasn't happened before.

I did have the garage open without a car and my car sitting in the driveway. Maybe it was someone checking to see if we were home before they tried stealing! GULP! I did check the front yard and the garag, but then came in. I guess they could have hidden around the corner of the house. Double Gulp! I did go back in (after closing the garage....that hubby left open) and watch from the windows. Will keep things tightened up. Maybe they will realize when the clunker of a car I have is in the driveway, I'm home! Thanks to all of you!

Featured Answers

B.C.
answers from Dallas
on
October 07, 2011

Happened to me once. It was the 5 year old next door who's mother didn't watch him. He rang it and then hid behind my truck. Lol.

This might sound dumb but did you have the TV on? There have been a couple times where the doorbell rang on the TV and I could have sworn it was the door when it was actually a commercial or something.

Yes - I have had it happen before. And its unnerving. But it could be a short in the doorbell wiring. Or insects looking to make a home inside the button area. Or those dang wireless ones that ring by themselves.

Creepy. If a doorbell goes out, it shouldn't chime. If it chimes on its own, then there must have been a strong enough surge to force the wires to energize the chimes and activate them.

I'm sure you know that you have every right to not answer your door....right? Even if the people on the other side know you are home, you still don't have to say anything or do anything.

I do it all the time. When solicitors come by, the first thing my kid does is yell "Mom, someone's at the door". I still look through my peephole and if its someone I don't want to open for, I just walk away, even w/my kid standing right next to the door yelling "are you going to open it mom?". That kid.

** There are things called "doorknob alarms"... which you hang on the doorknob. If anyone outside the door touches the doorknob, the alarm will go off.
Amazon has it.
We had this when I was a child.
It works.

Do you have a wireless doorbell? We do - and it often (once a week) just rings and no one is there. We figured out that between our wireless computer network, the baby monitor, our neighbor's baby monitors and other wireless devices, they all interfere with each other now and again.

Hi J.,
Did you get a new doorbell system recently? Ours used to be hooked up in the walls electrically. However, we removed that system with our kitchen remodeling job and bought a plug in kind. Well... it turns out that ours will play the fancy doorbell sound now if our next door neighbor's bell gets pressed. So.... it took me quite awhile before I realized that anytime someones was ringing her bell, that mine would ring too! (I went over to my neighbor's house for something and rang her bell. I came back home a few minutes later and my husband said someone rang our bell and no one was there and did I happen to see who it was.) WELL.... that's when it dawned on me what was going on! Simple soulution..... I changed outlets and plugged it in on the other side of my house. It worked!

Not to scare you.... but if it was an intruder looking for a home to rob, he immediately knew not to mess with your home since he heard a dog barking a lot. I've heard that this is how some intruders work.... ring the bell and if no one answers for a long time, then they possibly take their chance at breaking in or if they hear a dog barking, they leave the premises and try for a house that doesn't have dogs that could possibly hurt them. If you have an alarm system in your house, ask your alarm contractor for a door sticker that says WARNING ALARM SYSTEM INSTALLED by___________ and a sign that you stick in the mud near your door letting possible intruders know.

Okay... I hope I didn't scare you. (Not my intentions) I bet it might have been a low battery or that you are picking up signals from a neighbor with the same doorbell brand.

I've had that happen once in Aug, it stayed a mystery....and then 2wks later I realized i hadnt gotten something I ordered online....so I called target to complain (cuz on their site it says it was delivered) and it turns out the delivery date and time is the same exact time I had the bell ring....but i never got the item. so I assume the UPS guy stole my product? thats my ONLY explanation to both missing package, and random door bell with nobody at the door. (ofcourse I dont open the door, or try to investigate). My parents say to answer phone calls, and respond to door bells (letting them know someone is home) cuz someone can be plottting to burgalarize you. and you not responding gives them the impression no one is home. so let thm know there is osmeone home. IDK....

It did happen to us once. Our doorbell kept ringing, like four or five times in a row. Each time, we looked and saw no one there. Turned out the sensor was very touchy and the wind was setting it off. We removed that doorbell! I will, however, advise you that thieves that break into homes will often ring a door bell to see if someone is home. They don't attack the person when the door opens, but they do watch from a vantage point. If no one answers, they think no one is home and will break in. So, it's better to go to the door and check; it may keep you from being the victim of a very frightening burglary/robbery!

We used to have a wireless doorbell on our back door. That thing drove us nuts because it would ring and no one there. You have to go into the yard and all the way over to the door (over 30 feet) to get to the doorbell. We took that sucker down.

This might sound dumb but did you have the TV on? There have been a couple times where the doorbell rang on the TV and I could have sworn it was the door when it was actually a commercial or something.

We don't answer our door AT ALL unless we are expecting someone. We even have a sign that says "please no solicitors or unexpected guests" I have never understood the concept of people feeling an obligation to open the door to THEIR house just because a stranger pushes a button. I have never heard of it ringing due to malfunction. It may have been someone scoping out your house.

Honestly, my first thought was that your house was being cased. Our bell rarely rings, but it never really needs to. Our German Shepherd has a fantastic view of the street in front of our home (cul-de-sac) and we have a wide porch with low windows. Her favorite napping place is in the dining room right below the window sill. Sometimes she sits there with her chin resting on the sill watching outside. If ANYONE approaches (UPS turning around after a delivery next door, the neighbors outside mowing the grass, a kid selling something, a friend dropping by, the neighbors around the corner out for a walk, a cat slinking along the treeline across the way, the telephone truck parked kitty-corner working on their box, ANYone) I know about it. It is fun times when the pest control/termite guy comes to check their baits around the house, lol.

But, I ALWAYS go to the door or window to look and see what has got her started. And she knows that I will. If I am in the back of the house she won't stop until I come look, and if I take too long, (say I'm just stepping out of the shower) she'll come running through our bedroom to the bathroom and look at me then spin back around and go back and bark some more.

I always keep the garage closed. That way no one knows that if they come by and see the door down that they can assume we are gone (if it is normally up so they can see a car then one day it's down for example). The door stays down except when I am pulling in or out of the driveway, most of the time.

I will say though, that some areas the kids are out of school this week for a "fall break", so maybe that is what was going on....

If you walk through our dining room a certain way, our doorbell goes off. It got so bad, I had my dh disconnect it (it's hardwired) until we could install a new one. But I know ours is a MINIMUM of 60 years old, so that's probably why lol!

Yes - I have had it happen before. And its unnerving. But it could be a short in the doorbell wiring. Or insects looking to make a home inside the button area. Or those dang wireless ones that ring by themselves.

Is it a wireless one with a base that plugs in? we had one like that and come to find out our neighbor across the street had one too. So every time someone came to their door and rang the bell, it would make ours ring too.
just a thought

When I was a kid we called it "Ring and run" :)
Assume the best, but be safe and smart at the same time. No reason for it to disrupt your peace though. Our imaginations can go crazy in this "scary world" we live in.

I had never heard the term "ding dong ditch" before, but that's exactly what I would assume if it were me. I try to be safe and careful and smart about things (watch where I am, know my surrounding, lock my doors, etc.) but I don't give those things too much thought. Odds are it was just some kid.

I would say ring and run. Kids have done that at our house and my husband saw them because he was sitting next to the window when they did it. i also know that some schools have a fall break in October for a week so maybe school was out that day.